TL;DR
Starting a new business is full of competing priorities. You’re building a product, finding customers, managing cash flow – and somewhere in the mix, you’re expected to figure out SEO too.
Link building often gets pushed to the back of the queue. It feels complicated, time-consuming, and hard to justify when you’re not yet sure what’s working. But the startups that get it right early tend to pull ahead quickly, and the ones that ignore it spend years playing catch-up.
Why link building matters more for startups
When your domain is brand new, Google has no frame of reference for who you are or whether you can be trusted. You haven’t had years to accumulate a track record, mentions across the web, or an established presence in your niche.
Backlinks are one of the fastest ways to change that. When authoritative, relevant websites link to yours, they’re essentially vouching for you. Google takes note. So does your domain authority – the metric that signals how trustworthy your site is compared to competitors.
The earlier you start building that foundation, the sooner you start seeing organic visibility. And organic traffic, unlike paid, compounds over time.
What makes a good backlink?
A single link from a respected industry publication will do more for your rankings than dozens of low-quality, irrelevant links. Quantity is far less important than quality.
When evaluating whether a backlink is worth going after, the three things that matter most are:
🤝 Relevance: Is the site topically related to your industry? A link from a health publication means a lot if you’re a wellness brand. The same link means very little if you sell B2B software.
⭐️ Authority: Does the site have credibility in the eyes of Google? Domain rating (DR) is a useful proxy for this. Links from high-DR sites carry more weight.
🌱 Naturalness: Does the link appear within genuinely useful content, with anchor text that makes sense in context? Forced or spammy placements can do more harm than good.
The types of link building that work for startups
Guest posts
Guest posting involves contributing an article to an external website in your niche, with a relevant backlink to your site included within the content. It’s one of the most effective and scalable link building methods available.
For startups, it’s particularly useful because it does double duty: you get a backlink and your brand gets exposure to an established audience that you haven’t yet built yourself. The key is targeting sites that are genuinely relevant and have real readership – not low-quality blogs that exist purely to sell links.
Link insertions
Also known as niche edits, link insertions involve placing your backlink into an already-published piece of content on another site. The article exists, it has context, and your link slots in naturally where it adds value.
This approach tends to move quickly, which is useful for startups who want to build momentum without waiting weeks for new content to be written and published.
Digital PR
Digital PR earns backlinks by getting your brand featured in online publications – through press releases, expert commentary, or story-led campaigns. These tend to be some of the highest-authority links available, coming from established news sites, industry magazines, and well-known blogs.
For startups, digital PR is also a powerful brand awareness play. Getting your name in front of the right publications early helps you build credibility in the market faster than most other channels.
Common mistakes startups make with link building
Chasing volume over quality
It’s tempting to go after as many links as possible when you’re starting from zero. But a handful of well-placed, high-authority backlinks will move the needle far more than a bulk order of low-quality ones. Worse, spammy links can actively hurt your rankings – a penalty at an early stage is the last thing a startup needs.
Ignoring anchor text strategy
The anchor text – the clickable words that carry your link – matters. A natural mix of branded anchors (your company name), partial-match anchors, and contextual phrases gives Google the right signals. Over-optimising for exact-match keywords looks unnatural and can trigger red flags. It’s worth thinking about this from day one rather than trying to correct it later.
Expecting overnight results
Link building takes time to show results. Google needs to crawl and index new links, and the authority they pass builds gradually. Most startups should expect to see meaningful movement after three to six months of consistent effort – not three to six days. Patience is part of the process.
Not targeting the right pages
Many startups point all their links at their homepage. While homepage authority matters, it’s often your service or product pages that need the ranking boost most. A clear backlink strategy that targets specific URLs from the start will deliver better results.
How much should a startup spend on link building?
There’s no universal answer, but the good news is that you don’t need a huge budget to get started. Flexible link building – where you pay per backlink or set a modest monthly budget – means you can start small, see what works, and scale as your business grows.
The key is consistency. A few quality links per month, every month, will outperform a one-off burst every time. Think of it like compound interest – the earlier you start, the more it compounds.
Pay-per-backlink
£200 per backlink
Backlink package
£1,800 per month
Building links from scratch: a sensible starting point
If you’re a startup with a limited budget and no existing backlink profile, here’s a practical approach:
➡️ Start with a clear idea of which pages on your site you want to rank, and prioritise those for link building.
➡️ Focus on relevance first – a lower-authority link from a highly relevant site can outperform a high-DR link with no topical connection.
➡️ Consider a mix of guest posts for brand exposure and link insertions for speed.
➡️ Track everything – know which links are live, where they’re pointing, and what’s changing in your rankings over time.
➡️ Avoid any service promising large numbers of links for unusually low prices.
Ready to fetch your first backlinks?
Getting link building right from the start gives your startup a genuine head start on the competition. At Bulldog, we’ve been building high-authority, relevant backlinks since 2013 – with flexible budgets that work whether you’re just getting started or ready to scale.
Let’s start with a chat, not a sales pitch
Book a quick call to get started – just a friendly chat to see if we’re the right fit and how we can help.
